Tulalip News

17 more bison shipped to slaughter

Billings Gazette Feb 19, 2014 • By Brett French

BRETT FRENCH/Gazette Staff Bison wander back toward Yellowstone National Park from outside the park’s northern border in the Gardiner Basin recently. The park continues to ship bison to slaughter to reduce the number of animals in the park. — BRETT FRENCH/Gazette Staff
Bison wander back toward Yellowstone National Park from outside the park’s northern border in the Gardiner Basin recently. The park continues to ship bison to slaughter to reduce the number of animals in the park.

The Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes trucked 17 more Yellowstone National Park bison from the park’s Stephens Creek bison capture facility to a slaughter facility in Ronan on Wednesday.

The tribes pay a game warden to ride along with the shipment of animals to shoot them if there is an accident and the bison escape from the trailer, a requirement of the Montana Department of Livestock.

That requirement was unknown to the Inter Tribal Buffalo Council, which had agreed to take any bison not wanted by Yellowstone treaty tribes. Initially, the DOL offered to provide one of its employees to ride along at a cost of $350 a trip. When the council balked at the cost, Yellowstone on Wednesday agreed to pay, said Christian Mackay, executive officer for the DOL.

“It’s not an insurmountable problem by any means,” Mackay said. “We have some loads scheduled this week to go out.”

Jim Stone, executive director of the buffalo council, said such “annoying” issues are roadblocks to fulfilling agreements under the Interagency Bison Management Plan and he called into question the DOL’s role in the process.

To date, tribal and state hunters have killed 162 bison, said Tom McDonald of the confederated tribes’ natural resources office. The Nez Perce, Shoshone-Bannock and Umatilla tribes are still conducting hunts. Montana-licensed hunters took 29 bison this season.

Last week, the confederated tribes transported another 20 bison from Yellowstone to slaughter and five were transferred to the USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service for research. According to a Park Service spokesman, about 70 to 75 bison are now in the Stephens Creek corral. The bison were not hazed into the facility. Another 50 to 70 bison have moved past the park’s northern boundary in the Gardiner Basin while about 400 have gathered in the park roughly between the towns of Gardiner and Mammoth Hot Springs, Wyo.

Yellowstone officials want to remove 300 to 600 bison in consecutive years to reduce the size of the park’s herds to meet the terms of an agreement with the state of Montana. Bison advocacy groups have decried the move, saying a target population of 3,000 to 3,500 bison in the park is not based on the carrying capacity of the range. This summer the park’s bison herd was estimated at 4,600 animals.

Bison advocates would like to see the animals given more room to roam outside Yellowstone and a quarantine process enacted to transfer live animals to existing tribal bison herds. Those efforts have been fought by the livestock industry since many of the bison carry brucellosis, which can cause pregnant cattle to abort.

Defenders of Wildlife said 56,000 people had emailed Gov. Steve Bullock asking him to intervene and halt the slaughter.

McDonald said confederated tribes are taking bison to slaughter for hunters who were unsuccessful in filling their bison hunting tags. The hunters pay for the cost of shipping, slaughtering and butchering of the bison.

“When it’s all said and done, people love bison meat and are willing to pay a premium,” McDonald said. “Ninety-seven percent of the people who return to eating bison find it exceptional.”

He added that the hunts have been “self-esteem builders” for the parties of hunters that travel to Yellowstone’s borders.

“It’s almost a healing kind of thing,” McDonald said.

Quinault Denounces State Fish and Wildlife Commission Process

Water 4fish

TAHOLAH, WA (2/18/14)— “I am extremely disappointed that the State Fish and Wildlife Commission has chosen to unilaterally develop a management policy for Grays Harbor salmon,” said Fawn Sharp, President of the Quinault Indian Nation. Her comment referred to a recent news release in which the Commission announced its February 8 approval of a new salmon-management policy to conserve wild salmon runs and clarify catch guidelines for sport and commercial fisheries in the bay.

“As co-managers, the Quinault Nation and State should be working collaboratively and cooperatively to conserve Grays Harbor salmon. Yet the Commission didn’t even bother to meet with us. The Commission’s plan is a stark reminder of the decades-long battles in the federal courts which found that the so-called ‘conservation’ actions of the State of Washington were in fact ‘wise use’ decisions that unlawfully discriminated against treaty fishing. It is inconceivable that today, some 40 years after the decision of Judge Boldt in US v Washington, the Commission would still choose to ignore tribal rights and interests,” said Sharp.

“Quinault Nation has consistently demonstrated leadership in habitat restoration, enhancement and all aspects of good stewardship. The State’s pursuit of fish-killing dams in the Chehalis River and the Commission’s actions reflect continuation of a disturbing pattern. Rather than confronting the major threat to natural fish production in the Grays Harbor Basin, destruction and degradation of habitats, the Commission has chosen to focus on harvest by a small segment of the fishing community. The State also continues to ignore the orders of federal courts. Proper management of Grays Harbor fishery resources requires a comprehensive and cohesive approach developed through collaborative processes at state/tribal, regional and even international levels. By acting on its own, the Commission violated the principles of cooperation and trust and even such agreements as the Centennial Accord. While the Commission’s policy can’t apply to our fisheries, implementation of the Commission’s policy could well set the stage for future conflict and confrontation,” said President Sharp.

Amid Toxic Waste, a Navajo Village Could Lose Its Land

A contaminated pile near the community of Red Water Pond Road holds a million cubic yards of waste from the Old Northeast Church Rock Mine. Mark Holm for The New York Times

By DAN FROSCH FEB. 19, 2014 The NYTimes

CHURCH ROCK, N.M. — In this dusty corner of the Navajo reservation, where seven generations of families have been raised among the arroyos and mesas, Bertha Nez is facing the prospect of having to leave her land forever.

The uranium pollution is so bad that it is unsafe for people to live here long term, environmental officials say. Although the uranium mines that once pocked the hillsides were shut down decades ago, mounds of toxic waste are still piled atop the dirt, raising concerns about radioactive dust and runoff.

And as cleanup efforts continue, Ms. Nez and dozens of other residents of the Red Water Pond Road community, who have already had to leave their homes at least twice since 2007 because of the contamination, are now facing a more permanent relocation. Although their village represents only a small sliver of the larger Navajo nation, home to nearly 300,000 people, they are bearing the brunt of the environmental problems.

“It feels like we are being pushed around,” said Ms. Nez, 67, a retired health care worker, who recalled the weeks and months spent in motel rooms in nearby Gallup as crews hauled away radioactive soil from the community’s backyards and roadsides.

“This is where we’re used to being, traditionally, culturally” she said. “Nobody told us it was unsafe. Nobody warned us we would be living all this time with this risk.”

These days, this sprawling reservation, about the size of West Virginia, is considered one of the largest uranium-contaminated areas in United States history, according to officials at the Environmental Protection Agency. The agency has been in the throes of an expansive effort to remove waste from around this tiny and remote Navajo village, and clean up more than 500 abandoned mine areas that dot the reservation.

Federal officials say they have been amazed at the extent of the uranium contamination on the reservation, a vestige of a burst of mining activity here during the Cold War. In every pocket of Navajo country, tribal members have reported finding mines that the agency did not know existed. In some cases, the mines were discovered only after people fell down old shafts.

“It is shocking — it’s all over the reservation,” said Jared Blumenfeld, the E.P.A.’s regional administrator for the Pacific Southwest. “I think everyone, even the Navajos themselves, have been shocked about the number of mines that were both active and abandoned.”

Between 2008 and 2012, federal agencies spent $100 million on the cleanup, according to the E.P.A.; an additional $17 million has been spent by energy companies determined to be responsible for some of the waste.

But the scope of the problem is worse than anyone had thought. The E.P.A. has said that it could take at least eight years to dispose of a huge pile of uranium mine waste that has sat near Red Water Pond Road since the 1980s — waste that must be removed before the area can finally be free of contamination.

“The community is frustrated, I know I’m frustrated — we’d like it to go quickly,” Mr. Blumenfeld said.

But before the latest round of cleanup can begin, an application to remove the waste pile must be submitted to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which will then conduct environmental and safety reviews. That process will probably take two years, and there is the possibility that public hearings on the plan could extend the process several more years, said Drew Persinko, a deputy director for the commission.

That time frame seems unreasonably long for tribal members, who said that spending so long living away from the reservation has been difficult. So far, the E.P.A. has spent $1 million on temporary housing for residents of Red Water Pond Road; much of that cost will be reimbursed by General Electric, which acquired the old Northeast Church Rock Mine site in 1997, and also its subsidiary company, United Nuclear Corporation, which operated the mine.

As in the past, the relocations will be voluntary. Some residents wondered — as they have for years now — if the land will ever really be clean.

“Our umbilical cords are buried here, our children’s umbilical cords are buried here. It’s like a homing device,” said Tony Hood, 64, who once worked in the mines and is now a Navajo interpreter for the Indian Medical Center in Gallup. “This is our connection to Mother Earth. We were born here. We will come back here eventually.”

Residents still remember seeing livestock drinking from mine runoff, men using mine materials to build their homes and Navajo children playing in contaminated water that ran through the arroyo. Today, the site near Red Water Pond Road holds one million cubic yards of waste from the Northeast Church Rock Mine, making it the largest and most daunting area of contamination on the reservation.

The waste does not pose any immediate health risk, Mr. Blumenfeld said, but there are concerns about radioactive dust being carried by the wind, runoff from rain, and the area’s accessibility to children, who can slip in easily through a fence.

Under a plan being developed by General Electric and the E.P.A., the waste would be transported to a former uranium mill just off the reservation — already considered a Superfund site — and stored in a fortified repository. The estimated cost is nearly $45 million.

“General Electric and United Nuclear Corporation are committed to continue to work cooperatively with the U.S. government, Navajo Nation, state of New Mexico and local residents to carry out interim cleanups and reach agreement on the remedy for the mine,” said Megan Parker, a spokeswoman for General Electric.

The Navajo E.P.A., which is an arm of the tribe’s own government, for years has been calling for a widespread cleanup of abandoned mines. Stephen Etsitty, the executive director of the agency, said he was hopeful that progress was finally being made, but acknowledged that the scope and technical complexity of the operation at Red Water Pond Road was unprecedented.

“We’re pushing and doing as much as we can to keep the process going as fast as we can,” Mr. Etsitty said. “It’s just taken so long to get there.”

On a recent day, Ms. Nez and several other residents stood on a bluff near a cluster of small homes and traditional Navajo hogan dwellings as the wind whipped across a valley that once bustled with mining activity.

The group talked of their grandparents — medicine men who were alive when the mines first opened — and wondered what they would think about Red Water Pond Road today.

“They would say ‘How did this happen? They ruined our land,’ ” Ms. Nez said. “ ‘How come you haven’t prayed to have this all fixed up?’ ”

A version of this article appears in print on February 20, 2014, on page A10 of the New York edition with the headline: Nestled Amid Toxic Waste, a Navajo Village Faces Losing Its Land Forever. Order Reprints|Today’s Paper|Subscribe

Tribal objects shown reverence on trip home to US

(Survival International-Associated Press) – This July 2013 photo released courtesy of Survival International shows Hopi tribal elder Lawrence Keevama, left speaking with French attorney, Pierre Servan-Schreiber, center and Sam Tenakhongva, Hopi Kachina Society leader, at the Hopi tribal offices in Flagstaff, Ariz.

By Associated Press, Thursday, February 20, 2014

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. — Two dozen ceremonial items bought last year at auction in France are set to return to Arizona in a way that pays reverence to the beliefs of American Indian tribes.

The masks and hoods invoke the ancestral spirits of the Hopi and Apache Tribes — who consider them living beings in keeping with tradition — and the expectation is they will be treated as such. That means shipping the sacred items free of plastics, bubble wrap or other synthetic material that would be suffocating. The items also should face the direction of the rising sun, have space to breathe, and be spoken to during their journey.

The shipping reflects the deeply sensitive nature of the items that the Los Angeles-based Annenberg Foundation quietly bought for $530,000 at a contested Paris auction two months ago with the goal of sending them back to their tribal homes in eastern Arizona.

The Hopi and two Apache tribes believe the return of the objects, kept largely out of public view, will put tribal members on a healing path and help restore harmony not only in their communities but among humanity.

“The elders have told us the reason we have the ills of society, suicides, murders, domestic violence, all these things, is we’re suffering because these things are gone and the harmony is gone,” said Vincent Randall, cultural director for the Yavapai-Apache Nation.

The tribes say the items — 21 pieces are headed to the Hopi, two to the San Carlos Apache and one to the White Mountain Apache — were taken from their reservations in the late 19th and 20th centuries at a time when collectors and museums competed for sensitive items from Western tribes. Tribal archaeologists say the objects also could have been traded for food and water, or unrightfully sold.

In Hopi belief, the Kachina friends emerge from the earth and sky to connect people to the spiritual world and to their ancestors. Caretakers, who mostly are men, nurture the masks as if they are the living dead. Visitors to the Hopi reservation won’t see the masks displayed on shelves or in museums, and the ritual associated with them is a lifelong learning process.

The San Carlos Apache recount a story of ceremonial items being wrenched from the hands of tribal members who were imprisoned by the U.S. military at Fort Apache. Journal entries from the time showed that hoods, as well as medicine bundles and other prayer items akin to crosses and holy water were taken, said Vernelda Grant, director of the Historic Preservation and Archaeology Department for the San Carlos Apache Tribe.

“Of course you’re going to be emotional, and of course it’s going to have an effect on your health, the welfare of your people,” she said. “It kills them, it killed us emotionally. Those items were taken care of until those times came. We were forced to hand them over so we could get what? A box of rations, a blanket?”

For the San Carlos Apache, the hoods represent the mountain spirits reincarnated in men who make and wear them in ceremonial dances for healing or when girls reach puberty. Each is fashioned by a tribal member endowed with a gift of being a spiritual leader. Once the hoods have been used, they are put away in an undisclosed location in the mountains, known only to the spiritual leader through a revelation from the “ruler of life,” or God.

If they are disturbed or removed, a curse of sorts can be placed upon humanity, Randall said.

Although the Apaches are among the most successful tribes in getting items within the United States returned to the tribes, they could do little to stop the sale in France.

The auction house argued that the items rightfully were in private collectors’ hands. A judge hearing the Hopi’s plea to block the sale said that unlike the U.S., France has no laws to protect indigenous peoples.

In a similar dispute in April, a Paris court ruled that such sales are legal. Around 70 masks were sold for some $1.2 million, despite protests and criticism from the U.S. government.

The Annenberg Foundation took note of the Hopi Tribe’s heartbreaking loss and in December employed a well-orchestrated, secretive plan to successfully bid on most of the items at auction.

The plan involved foundation employees placing bids by phone and keeping its plan private to save the tribes from potential disappointment. A French lawyer working for the Hopis and Survival International, Pierre Servan-Schreiber, said he spoke with the foundation using a discreet earpiece to keep the objects’ prices from skyrocketing as he bid on behalf of a U.S. benefactor.

“This is how we achieved this brilliant result,” Servan-Schreiber said in an email.

The foundation said it has complied with the tribes’ shipping requests to ensure the items are treated with care and respect. Those requests include shipping the items in specially designed, individual crates, turning them in a clockwise direction and entrusting them to the hands of men.

Should the items be handled contrary to Hopi and Apache practices, the tribes asked the foundation to apologize to the spirits and explain that it’s not intentional.

Two of the Hopi items, which have golden eagle and cooper’s hawk feathers, will require import permits from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service because the birds are protected under federal law. The sacred “Crow Mother,” which sold for twice its expected value at $171,000, requires an export permit from the French government, the foundation said.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection said it also would comply to the extent possible as the items enter the United States.

“It gives me immense satisfaction to know that they will be returned home to their rightful owners, the Native Americans,” said the foundation’s director and vice president, Gregory Annenberg Weingarten.

When the items reach the tribes after traveling overseas from France and to Los Angeles, there will be no extravagant celebrations — just quiet exaltation in knowing that their ancestral spirits will return to the mountainous areas of the San Carlos Apache reservation and to the hands of caretakers in Hopi villages.

“We understand their purpose for us. It’s not to be put up in the old circus shows of the bearded lady or the two-headed man,” said Sam Tenakhongva, the Kachina Society leader from the Hopi village of Walpi. “What it’s here for is to bring life, both for humanity and all living things.”

___

Follow Felicia Fonseca on Twitter: —http://www.twitter.com/FonsecaAP

Unarmed Navajo man killed at Arizona Walmart: Shooter free pending investigation

Shooter tells police he felt he was losing the brawl

Photo of Belinte Chee from his Facebook page

nativenewsonline.net by Levi Rickert / Currents / 19 Feb 2014

CHANDLER, ARIZONA — Kriston Charles Belinte Chee, a 36 year-old Navajo, paid a visit to a Walmart in Chandler, Arizona on Sunday. Allegedly an argument broke out between Chee and Kyle Wayne Quadin, 25, at the service counter. The argument turned into a physical brawl.

According to a statement gained by the Native News Online from the Chandler Police Department, “Mr. Qaudin was losing the fight and indicated he ‘was in fear for his life,’ so he pulled his gun and shot Mr. Belinte Chee.”

Chee was unarmed.

He was taken to an area hospital where he was pronounced dead.

Qaudin is now free pending an investigation.

“In situations such as this we call the county prosecutor’s office who sent someone to the scene of the crime and it was determined there were not grounds to hold the shooter at this point,” commented Chandler Police Department’s media relations officer, Sergeant Joe Favazzo to the Native News Online on Tuesday afternoon.

“Several factors go into a decision by the prosecutor’s office. It was determined Quadin was not a flight risk, so we let him go,” said Favazzo.

Police were dispatched the Walmart, located at 800 West Warner Road at 4:08 pm, local time, on Sunday, February 16, 2014.

It was not determined what the cause of the argument was. Chee and Quadin reportedly did not know one another.

The state of Arizona does not have a “Stand Your Ground” law, such as Florida, where the law was used by George Zimmerman case where Trayvon Martin was killed by Zimmerman.

However, people do have a right to defend themselves if they feel their lives are being threatened, according to Favazzo.

The Chandler Police Department will review the in-store video of the incident and interview several witnesses.

Chandler Police detectives will complete the investigation and submit the case for review to the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office.

Chee is survived by his wife and son.

Arthur Jacobs contributed to the article.

Talking Stick 2014: Drama, Dance, and the Electric Powwow in Vancouver

source: fullcircle.caA performer on stage at the 2013 Talking Stick Festival in Vancouver, Britich Columbia. The 2014 edition of the fest is now underway. — source: fullcircle.ca
A performer on stage at the 2013 Talking Stick Festival in Vancouver, Britich Columbia. The 2014 edition of the fest is now underway.

Alex Jacobs, 2/19/14, ICTMN

Talking Stick, the annual Native arts takeover of Vancouver, BC, is here. For the record, we’ll call it by its full name:

“FULL CIRCLE, First Nations Performance Company, presents the 21^st Annual TALKING STICK FESTIVAL.”

That is indeed a mouthful, but you will always need many words, emotions and hand signs to describe what happens every February into March in Vancouver BC, when these First Nations artists and performers stage their events. These are the descriptions but its best to see and hear the actors, poets, musicians and dancers put all their energy, work, love and passion into these performances.

Yesterday, February 18, the festival opened up at The Roundhouse with music, dance, stories, food and drink at Wax hoks Shqalawin (Open Your Hearts). And with that, we were off and running. Here’s a rundown of the happenings you should investigate if you’re in Vancouver from now through March 2:

From Talking Stick to Microphone, Feb 21 at Café Deux Soleils, led by “East Van ghetto poet” Zaccheus Jackson (who has twice represented Vancouver and Western Canada at the Individual World Poetry Slam), this is a selection of this country’s best independent musicians and slam poets going head to head.

A Tribe Called Red

W2 Media, Live Nation & Talking Stick Festival present Salish Coast Live with A Tribe Called Red. ATCR will be performing at Salish Coast LIVE, Feb. 22, with Ostwelve, Mat the Alien, Lido Pimienta, Self Evident, VJs Kinotropy + Heidrogen, and Tsleil-Waututh artists. Buy tickets early as this show will sell out in advance. First Films, New Voices, 3 nights of films and talkback, from the Indigenous Independent Digital Film-making Program at Capilano University, Feb 19, 20, 21. Festival Opening Pow Wow at the Roundhouse, Feb.23.

The following productions have several shows throughout the Festival:

Raven Meets the Monkey King. JJ is an inquisitive 11 year old who dreams of becoming a rich and famous treasure hunter. She buys a mysterious box from a garage sale and inside finds an authentic Raven Mask wrapped in an original Chinese Opera poster depicting the Monkey King. In removing them she inadvertently sets free the spirits of the Raven and the Monkey King, who were trapped in the box for ninety years. These two tricksters share their stories and life lessons with JJ. An exuberant tale of how our lives are transformed by the people we meet, the choices we make and the stories we tell.

In Spirit (formerly Quilchena). In 1978 Monica Jack will be thirteen years old soon and her dad proudly presents her with a new bike. Sharing in his excitement, Monica rides the bike to show her friend who lives only a few houses up the road. Failing to return for dinner, a makeshift search party finds only her bike, tossed into some bushes at the side of highway 5A. For eighteen years, her family and friends imagine Monica into adulthood. This is a haunting journey inside the missing Monica’s experience. This is a story of the tragedy of a peoples systemically abused by an uncaring government, it is also the story of a community who banded together to ensure their missing child is never forgotten. This is a tour de force performance by Sera-Lys McArthur. Director/playwright Tara Beagan and Designer Moro were named in NOW Magazine’s Top Ten Theatre Artists for their work on Quilchena.

For the Pleasure of Seeing Her Again

For the Pleasure of Seeing Her Again. Michel Tremblay’s hilarious and heartrending tribute to his mother; Kevin Loring is the narrator, regaling us with tales about his feisty mother – a born storyteller with a love of exaggeration and invention. Margo Kane, as Nana, exasperates the son she so fiercely loves – yet proves an inspiration for his art. One of the hits of Western Canada Theatre’s 2011-12 Season, critically praised, the piece was invited by the prestigious Magnetic North Theatre Festival to perform in Ottawa in June 2013.

The Hours That Remain , a Gwaandak Theatre production in association with New Harlem Productions. This play explores the story of a woman haunted by the disappearance of her sister. Denise desperately seeks to find answers to Michelle’s disappearance and is visited by her missing sister in a series of visions. In confronting the pervasive reality of missing women in Canada, we are also faced with the legacy of loss endured by families, friends and community.

Convergence

Convergence, on February 26 and 27 at The Roundhouse. Convergence occurs where two strong ocean currents meet, merge, and transform. Propelled by opposing forces, their movement and strength increases as they intersect and coalesce. Two main currents of contemporary aboriginal dance, one more deeply rooted in ancient dance practices and the other more firmly grounded in contemporary dance, are once again reaching a crucial moment of convergence. The momentum of this transformation pushes past boundaries and categorization. It necessitates a deeper understanding of the diversity of contemporary Aboriginal dance. Two evenings examine two main currents of contemporary Aboriginal dance, one more deeply rooted in ancient dance practices share the stage with others more firmly grounded in contemporary dance.

Spirit of Transforming, a new work by Dancers of Damelahamid’s. Opening performance by the Eastern Sky Ambassadors. Spirit of Transforming is the signature new dance work by the Dancers of Damelahamid. It combines the richness and beauty of the tradition of masked dances of the Gitxsan and also explores presenting this genre in a minimalistic way- the very essence of this dance form.

Skins, is a new improvisation based dance work by Rosy Simas (Seneca) which investigates what we hold in our skin. Performed by Rosy Simas and Taja Will from Minneapolis. Over the past 20 years, Simas has created more than 40 original works. In 2013 she was awarded a Native Arts and Culture Foundation Dance Fellowship, and a NEFA National Dance Project award for her new work “We Wait in the Darkness.”

Going To Water: Dancer/Choreographer Maura Garcia (Cherokee/Mattamuskeet) collaborates with others to create genre-spanning art. Themes of social justice, Indigenous identity and the rhythms of the natural world run throughout her creations. Maura will present the solo performance “Going to Water”, which represents the traditional Cherokee ceremony of going to water. It speaks to the rebellious nature of water and of Indigenous people, continuing to make a way despite all obstructions.

NeoIndigenA: Set in a future Indigena with an unbroken continuum of Indigenous knowledge, NeoIndigenA is a ritual journey between Skyworld, Earthworld and Underworld. Santee Smith’s solo performance boldly moves us through sacred pathways of human connection, accompanied by musical collaborators Jesse Zubot, Cris Derksen and Michael Red and featuring elemental voices of Inuit singers Tanya Tagaq and Nelson Tagoona.

Ch’odza (she is dancing)

CH’ODZA (She is Dancing): Raven Spirit Dance, 10 years celebration, Feb 28, The Roundhouse.

“It seems to be, the farther we reach out, the deeper we understand home.” – Michelle Olson

Northern Journey, Choreographer: Michelle Olson, is a contemporary dance performance inspired by the land we carry inside of us. This internal landscape carves out the pathways that lead to our animal instinct and lead us to images that hold our human experience. Inspired by the Porcupine caribou herd and a First Nations traditional story about the caribou, this piece inhabits a place of ice, water, loneliness and transformation.

Spine of the Mother, Choreographer: Starr Muranko, is a collaborative project between contemporary artists in Canada and Peru exploring the relationship between the geography of the Andes Mountain range and traditional and contemporary dance movement in the Americas. “Spine of Mother Earth” is a name given by Indigenous Elders in South America to the Mountain ranges that span from the base in Argentina, through the Americas and end at the tip of Alaska. This column or axis connects the people of the North and the South who have traveled and communicated along this mountain range for thousands of years.

Screening of short-film “A Common Experience”, Based on the play by Yvette Nolan, “Dear Mr. Buchwald”. In 2008 the Government of Canada formally apologized for the treatment of Aboriginal people in the Indian Residential School system. In moving towards healing and reconciliation the government established the “Common Experience Payment”, a program that pays former students for their suffering. It is the story of one applicant, Helen Thundercloud, as told through the eyes of her daughter, Yvette Nolan.

Staged reading from “Red Mother”, Conceived, written and performed by Muriel Miguel of Spiderwoman Theatre – NYC.

Crystal Shawanda

Northern Lights, on Feb 28^th at Djavad Mowafaghian World Arts Centre, 149 West Hastings Street , Vancouver. An evening celebrating Northern writers and artists with keynote from Keavy Martin (University of Alberta): readings from Sanaaq, the first novel written in Inuktitut and recently translated into English; and a screening of the short film Amaqqut Nunaat: Country of Wolves. The evening is capped with the delightful antics of Raven’s Radio Hour out of Alaska – a spoof of 40’s style radio shows, which blends traditional Alaska Native stories with song, dance and comedy, written and performed by Ed Bourgeois and Jack Dalton.

The Festival ends with a Crystal Shawanda Concert with Wayne LaVallee opening, March 1 at The Cultch.

You should probably start with on-line auctions and benefits, where you can purchase hotel accommodations, fine dining meals, ski packages, fine art prints, tix to the International Women’s Film Festival, Ballet, Orchestra and there’s always the big Whistler BC Resort vacation package up for grabs. During the Festival, there’s also art exhibits, Pow Wow, short films, panel discussions by First Nations professionals, story-telling, and as always the wrap party to celebrate another year. Go to FullCircle.ca for details and tickets, if you search Talking Stick Festival you will end up there also.

Corps Announces The Scope Of Longview Coal Export Review

Source: Cassandra Profita, OPB

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has announced which environmental impacts it will consider in its review of the Millennium Bulk Terminals coal export project in Longview, Wash.

The Millennium project would export 48 million tons of coal a year to Asia. It would ship the coal by rail from Montana and Wyoming to a terminal in Longview, where it would be loaded onto vessels and sent overseas.

In a 12-page memo, the Corps on Tuesday outlined which parts of that process it will consider in reviewing the project’s environmental impacts to the air, water, wildlife and people.

Despite requests from the public to include broader impacts of mining, shipping and burning the coal, the Corps is limiting the scope of its environmental review to the project site.

Washington state recently announced it will include a wider array of environmental impacts in its review of the project.

The decision comes after public agencies collected more than 200,000 comments from the public. Many people asked the Corps to consider the impacts of railroad traffic congestion along the entire delivery route, as well as the pollution created by mining the coal and burning it in power plants overseas.

But in its memo, the agency says:

“Many activities of concern to the public, such as rail traffic, coal mining, shipping coal and burning it overseas are outside the Corps’ responsibility.”

Instead, its environmental review will be limited to the 190-acre project site and the immediate vicinity around Longview. It includes about 50 acres of the Columbia River, where the project would build piers and dredge for ships.

In addition to environmental impacts, the review will also look at the jobs and tax benefits created by the project as well as the demand on public services and utilities.

When the Corps completes its review, the public will be invited to comment on a draft document. A final environmental impact statement will outline what the developer needs to do to offset the impacts of the project.

Millenium Bulk Terminals: Longview, Wash.

A $640 million terminal that would eventually export 44 million tons of coal at a private brownfield site near Longview, Wash. It’s a joint venture of Australia’s Ambre Energy and Arch Coal, the second-largest coal producer in the U.S.

Players: Alcoa, Ambre Energy, Arch Coal

Full Capacity: To be reached by 2018

Export Plans: 48.5 million short tons/year

Trains: 16 trains/day (8 full and 8 empty)

Train Cars: 960/day

Vessels: 2/day

What’s Next: On Feb. 12, 2014 the Washington Department of Ecology announced what environmental impacts it will consider in its review of the Millennium Bulk Terminal. In September 2013, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced split from what was to be a joint review process. They will conduct a “separate but synchronized environmental review and public scoping process.” The corps’ review will be narrower in scope than that of Washington state. For more information on how to submit comments and to learn details for the public meetings visit the official EIS website.

Protecting traditional knowledge: Tulalip participates in U.N. conference on protection of indigenous identities

By Andrew Gobin, Tulalip News

The Tulalip Tribes continues to participate in United Nations discussions about protecting the traditional knowledge of indigenous peoples, including oral histories and language, cultural expression, and genetic resources. Ray Fryberg Sr. and Preston Hardison of the Tulalip tribes Natural Resources Department traveled to Geneva, Switzerland, for the 13^th conference on traditional knowledge and biodiversity February 3^rd-7^th. The meetings potentially will conclude with an international treaty protecting indigenous peoples’ rights to their knowledge and any gains therein. Although the international treaty would protect traditional knowledge on a global scale, the real fight is here at home in the United State who has remained one of the strongest opponents to intellectual property rights on a global scale.

“As Indian tribes across the U.S. enter the national and global markets, the need to protect their traditional knowledge has become more prevalent,” said Hardison. “Especially with casinos, the tribes have brands, logos, and now traditional art that is being put out there.”

This touches on one aspect of the intellectual property debate on traditional knowledge; cultural expression. The use of art to brand Tulalip as a business, as a destination, now is vulnerable to being taken and used in ways other than intended, without the permission of the artist or Tulalip.

“We don’t want to set the rules,” he added, “we want tribes to be recognized as having the right to determine how, where, and why their knowledge is shared. Each culture has its own rules dictating those things, it should be up to those people to determine.”

Tulalip has been involved in this discussion at the U.N. since 2001, represented at 12 of the 14 meetings on indigenous knowledge and biodiversity. What they are working towards is a treaty that protects indigenous people on a global scale, recognizing their inherent rights to resources and traditional knowledge, so that those things may not be exploited. Currently, the exploitation of traditional knowledge and resources jeopardizes the survival of indigenous cultures around the world, essentially stripping them of access to their identities.

Ray Fryberg was selected to co-chair the committee of indigenous leaders that spoke to the issue of intellectual property rights. According to reports from the U.N., he was selected for his vast traditional knowledge and passion for preserving all that is encompassed in traditional knowledge, including genetic and natural resources and cultural expression.

Although Tulalip is sovereign, they are not recognized by the U.N. as a sovereign state. They have no seat, no vote, but they do have a consulting voice. Tulalip has to bid for support from other sovereigns, facing opposition most from the U.S.

“For tribes, pressure for protection has to come from within the U.S., not outside. And Tulalip is just about the only one that is in position to do it,” explained Hardison.

Hardison, along with Terry Williams who also works for Tulalip Natural Resources, have continued to be instrumental in the progress for protecting traditional knowledge. They have been involved since 2001, working together at 11 conference meetings, and were key players in the passing of the Nagoya Protocol, which protects the exploitation of genetic resources. The U.S. is not a nation signatory to the Nagoya Protocol.

Current laws in the U.S. have no teeth. The Native American Arts and Crafts Act prevents non Indians from marketing things as Native American art, but it doesn’t prevent the use of traditional methods and materials for personal gains. The Native American Graves and Repatriation Act allows for remains and artifacts to come back to tribes if the tribes can prove relationship to or historic connection, putting the burden of proof on the tribes. Tulalip continues to fight on the international stage for these rights, strengthening their position to protect these rights at home in the United States.

Andrew Gobin is a reporter with the See-Yaht-Sub, a publication of the Tulalip Tribes Communications Department.
Email: agobin@tulaliptribes-nsn.gov
Phone: (360) 716.4188

Celebrating Killers: Yes, Natives Should Care About a Dead Black Teen

Source: AP, The Florida Times-Union, Bob MackMichael Dunn smiles at his parents during a break in his trial in Jacksonville, Fla. Wednesday, Feb. 12, 2014. Dunn was found guilty of attempted second-degree murder in the shooting death of Jordan Davis in November 2012, but the jury was unable to reach a decision on the charge of murder. — Source: AP, The Florida Times-Union, Bob Mack
Michael Dunn smiles at his parents during a break in his trial in Jacksonville, Fla. Wednesday, Feb. 12, 2014. Dunn was found guilty of attempted second-degree murder in the shooting death of Jordan Davis in November 2012, but the jury was unable to reach a decision on the charge of murder.

Gyasi Ross, ICTMN

The original inhabitants of Turtle Island are not an island. As much as we might want to pretend otherwise, we are not the remote tribes in the Amazon. No, Natives of the United States are increasingly American with all of the benefits and burdens of Americans that affect us like everyone else.

Cable TV. Internet. Materialism. Pop music. Miley Cyrus. Gangnam Style.

Racism. White supremacy.

1955: Emmett Till, a 14-year-old boy who was murdered in Mississippi for allegedly flirting with a white woman. His killers, two white men who later admitted their guilt, were acquitted.

Sure, we all know that Black lives don’t mean anything to America. That’s been proven for centuries—Emmett Till, James Craig Anderson, James Byrd, Trayvon Martin, Jordan Davis—these are just a tiny fraction of the victims. But here’s a news bulletin: Native American lives mean absolutely nothing to America. Just like Black lives. Just like Mexican lives.

We’re not special. At all. As Martin Luther King Jr. properly recognized, the first instances of white supremacy were not against Black folks on this continent, but instead against Natives:

“Our nation was born in genocide when it embraced the doctrine that the original American, the Indian, was an inferior race. Even before there were large numbers of Negroes on our shore, the scar of racial hatred had already disfigured colonial society.” Martin Luther King, Jr.

Almost two years ago, I wrote about why Native people should be concerned about the senseless killing of Trayvon Martin. We should be concerned any time a person of color is killed simply because of the color of their skin. That’s what happened to our ancestors, as Martin Luther King, Jr. said—because we were (and are) seen as an “inferior race.” I know there are many of our people who have accepted the lie/legal fiction that the Native people of this continent are not a race, but a political group. However, there are many Natives who are still racially Native with brown skin and dark features and who are very ripe to be, like Trayvon Martin and Jordan Davis, the victims of white supremacy.

A ‘hunting license’ issued at the infamous Good Ol’ Boys Roundup, an annual whites only event run by agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms in southern Tennessee from 1980-1996.

Native Mothers and Fathers: your brown skin little Indian boys’ lives are in danger. Teach them that their beautiful brown skin and powerful long, dark hair puts them in danger. Tell your beautiful brown little Indian girls that they’re a target to be sexually assaulted just for being them—it’s a fact. Let them know that their attackers—both the boys and girls—will never be punished. In fact, they will be celebrated. Hold those powerful descendants of the first people of this continent close. Tell them that you love them. Every single time they go outside or to the store or to the mall, there is a possibility that they can be tried, convicted and executed of being too brown, too scary, too virile. “Their hair is too long.” “They have too many tattoos.” Treasure their time—their lives mean nothing to America. In fact IF, God forbid, they were to be tragically killed, there are many who would celebrate that death.

Little Indian boys like thug music, too. Like Jordan Davis. Little Indian boys wear hoodies, too. Like Trayvon Martin.

They are no different than these little Black boys who keep getting killed for being Black. Their crime is the color of their skin; they are tried and convicted in the blink of an eye. Now, I know that there are Natives who don’t like Black folks, and Black folks who don’t like Natives, therefore we see each other as “different.” “It’s just those ghetto Black boys getting killed.” or “It’s just those damn Indians getting killed.”

White supremacy doesn’t see any of as any different. At all. How do I know this?

Because white supremacy celebrates those who kill us.

Killer Michael Dunn was somehow convicted of attempted murder, but not murder. Killer George Zimmerman will have a reality show at some point and was already scheduled to be in a celebrity(!!) boxing match, profiting from the name he made while killing Trayvon Martin. Bernhard Goetz—pre-reality TV—became a semi-celebrity and had people willing to pay his legal defense. The point? People celebrate when white people kill young Black men.

As MLK pointed out, celebrating those who take brown lives ain’t nuthin’ new.

1890: Chief Spotted Elk lies dad in the shnow after the massacre at Wounded Knee. Twenty soldiers were awarded the Medal of Honor for their deeds.

1916: After Black teenager Jesse Washington confessed and was found guilty of murdering a white woman, he was dragged from the Waco, Texas, courthouse by an angry mob who hung him from a tree outside city hall. He was doused with oil and repeatedly lowered into a bonfire, and members of the mob cut off his fingers, toes and genitals.

1890: Mass grave for the Lakota dead at Wounded Knee.

Christopher Columbus. Kit Carson. The 20 Medal of Honor winners of the Wounded Knee Massacre. Abraham Lincoln—the Great Emancipator, Honest Abe—ordering the largest mass execution in US History when he ordered 38 Natives killed in Mankato, Minnesota.

We’re in this together. These murders affect us. My son carries the royal lineage of chiefs and spiritual healers and protector/warriors, yet he is a suspect each and every time he goes outside because of his powerful brown skin. Just like the little Black boys. Just like every other brown man in this Nation. We gotta stop lying to ourselves that we’re somehow different and protect our babies together.

Gyasi Ross
Blackfeet Nation/Suquamish Territories
Attorney/Author/Dad
New Book, “How to Say I Love You in Indian”—order today!!
www.cutbankcreekpress.com
Twitter: @BigIndianGyasi

Government Push for Oil Drives Ecuadorian Tribes to War

Typically, due to a lack of direct representation and a diminished voting base, indigenous groups worldwide are subject to exploitation and a corruption of their rights.

Ecuador Oil Protest — An indigenous woman confronts police guarding the venue where Ecuadorian government officials were meeting with oil company representatives in Quito, Ecuador, Thursday Nov. 28, 2013. Ecuador is looking for private investment to explore oil drilling in its Amazon region and received three bids for oil licensing Wednesday. Indigenous groups from the area are opposed to the government plan. (AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa)

By Frederick Reese, Mint Press News

Ecuador’s broken promise to not drill for oil in the territory of several of the nation’s indigenous people has touched off a tribal war and nearly universal condemnation from the international community.

Ecuador, a member of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, finds itself forced to find new oil sources to satisfy the nation’s ballooning debt to China. The government’s drilling in Yasuni National Park, one of the world’s most ecologically fragile, has been called inexcusable and reckless by locals for the damage it is causing.

Yasuni National Park is home to many species of flora and fauna that exist nowhere else in the world and to several indigenous tribes that have had no contact to the outside world.

A generation ago, the Waorani (also known as the Huaorani, the Waos or the Waodani) — a culturally-isolated indigenous group, started to find its territory challenged by illegal logging. The situation was made worse by American missionaries who worked to moved the Waorani away from its hunting and gathering traditional existence in the rainforest to permanent villages, such as Yawepare, where the Waorani is forced to live in makeshift shacks with no running water or electricity.

This missionary intervention, coordinated by the Ecuadorian government — cleared large blocks of land around the Auca Road for oil extraction. This has led to major contamination of the drilling sites, due to oil and chemical spills under Texaco management. Chevron, which acquired Texaco, was sued by the Yasuni tribes and was ordered to pay $18 billion in 2011 in restitution. Chevron has rejected the judgment and, as Chevron has no active assets in Ecuador, cannot be forced to pay.

This has created a situation in which those who desperately wish to be left alone have grown dangerously even more desperate. The Taromenane, a voluntarily isolated group that violently resisted the missionaries’ attempt to “civilize” them have allegedly increased its attacks on neighboring tribes. While inter-tribal feuds have existed for generations, they have accelerated with the increased presence of outsiders on its tribal lands.

In one cited example, more than 20 Taromenane, mostly women and children, were killed by the Waorani after a Waorani elder and his wife were allegedly killed by the Taromenane. This happened under the supposed protection of the Ecuadorian government. Two Taromenane girls were kidnapped by the Waorani; Ecuadorian officials were only able to recover the eldest girl, with the youngest still in Waorani custody. According to the tribes involved, this is recognized as being in compliance with their traditional mode of justice.

“I protest because it is my home,” said Alicia Cahuiya, a Waorani leader who was invited to speak to the National Assembly after the Assembly voted to open drilling in the Yasuni National Forest.

After Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa won re-election in March, he proposed the opening of drilling in the Yasuni but offered to postpone to leave the oil in the ground if the international community donated the $3.6 billion his country would have lost in revenue. In August, Correa abandoned this plan when only $17 million was donated.

“Yes, there is oil there, but I do not agree with the oil exploitation. We should be consulted about Yasuní. Our elders do not agree with any of this,” Cahuiya said. “Why are the Taromenane tribe people being killed fighting the Huaorani? Because you opened a road into the jungle! We don’t want any of that! Let us live like Waoranis. That is what we want!”

Typically, due to a lack of direct representation and a diminished voting base, indigenous groups worldwide are subject to exploitation and a corruption of their rights. Due to this, many indigenous groups have been hit with rampant poverty, lack of essential services and denial of legal access and protection.